AFP says Bukidnon encounter legitimate
CAMP BANCASI, Butuan City – The gunbattle in a remote village in Pangantucan town, Bukidnon was legitimate, contrary to the allegation of some highland people who claimed that the military had a hand in the killing of three innocent civilians.
“We have two soldiers who were wounded in that gunbattle last week and our ground troops and the SOCO (Scene of the Crime Operatives) in Pangantucan Municipal Police Station (MPS) also attested to the seizure of automatic rifle and live ammunitions,” claimed Northeastern and Northern Mindanao 4th Infantry (Diamond) Division (4th ID) spokesman Capt. Joe Patrick A. Martinez, when interviewed by Manila Bulletin yesterday.
He further asserted that the troops also conducted hot pursuit operations on the fleeing suspects.
“That encounter was legitimate,” he maintained.
Despite this assertion, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) in the area nevertheless welcomed an independent probe on the alleged encounter between the military and New People’s Army (NPA) rebels last Wednesday.
The AFP and PNP reacted to the statement of Eryo Inahan, chairman of the Manobo Farmers Association in Pangantucan that the victims, who died in a reported military encounter in Pangantucan, Bukidnon last Wednesday, were innocent civilians.
“We want the military to clear the names of the victims because they (victims) were not rebels of the New People’s Army (NPA) as alleged by the military,” Inahan told the local press in a press conference Monday.
Inahan alleged that the victims were allegedly shot one by one after they went down from the house of the victims on orders of the military.
But Martinez stressed that the ground troops in the area encountered armed rebels in the village of Mandog Mendez, which is nine kilometers away from the town of Pangantucan.
He added that the SOCO in the municipal police station in Pangantucan conducted an investigation of the incident and submitted an official report about the death of the victims.